Tchaikovsky
Symphony No. 4
Cleveland Orchestra/Franz Welser-Möst
Cleveland Orchestra TCO0009-D (digital) 39:07 mins
Franz Welser-Möst’s recording career spans well over three decades, yet this seems to be his first-ever album of Tchaikovsky. Recorded live at the Cleveland Orchestra’s hometown base in 2021, it makes an undeniably powerful impression.
Punctilious articulation in all sections of the orchestra marks the opening movement, with phrasing more precisely etched than in most rival performances. There’s no sense of pedantry, however, more a satisfying feeling that one is hearing the intricacies of Tchaikovsky’s writing in revealing detail.
Interpretively, Welser-Möst’s approach to the Fourth is fatalistic rather than fevered, and may disappoint those who like this symphony to be on the boil emotionally. The second movement is balletically pointed, and at no point milked for melancholy. Again the Cleveland players relish detail: the woodwind decorations of the recapitulated opening melody are tinglingly present.
The Scherzo’s pizzicato strings are exquisitely balanced and sharply responsive to dynamic markings, while brass and wind chording in the Trio is immaculate. Tempo-wise the movement is perhaps a touch relaxed, but it’s easy to feast aurally on playing of this technical calibre.
The finale is appropriately exciting, and exudes a formidable corporate virtuosity. Those who hanker for a hint of hysteria and instability amid the superficially high spirits of this movement will find it largely missing. But such is the interpretation’s clarity of texture and magisterial level of accuracy that it scarcely seems to matter. Terry Blain